I went on a whim. No one has ever called me ‘fashionable’ when it comes to clothing!

I went not knowing what to expect and was very pleasantly surprised at what I encountered. The majority of the exhibit consists of dresses designed by Christian Dior from 1947 to 1957.

Christian Dior was born in a seaside town in northern France in 1905. He began his career in fashion by selling fashion sketches in the early 1930’s after a failed attempt to run an art gallery. This led to a job as a design assistant with Paris couturier Robert Piguet. His career took off after WW2 when he started his own business, House of Dior (Maison Dior), in 1947.

below: This simple but classy two piece dress with black cummerbund is from Dior’s 1948 autumn-winter collection. It is made with black velvet with iridescent bead work. The bottom part is a mid-calf length skirt with the same beading. Actually, the words simple and classy describe most of the dresses here.

below: Embroidery with beads and stacked sequins in intricate designs.

below: The fabulous colours of fabric samples – this is only a small part of the display of fabrics with “a silk warp and a dupion weft”. Warp and weft are weaving terms – warp refers to the threads that run lengthwise down the fabric while weft refers to the crosswise threads. Dupion is similar to silk but it is thicker and more uneven.

below: This dress is made from the silk fabric described above.

Christian Dior’s success as a designer and a businessman continued until 1957 when he died while on vacation in Italy. Yves Saint Laurent spent a few years as the Artistic Director immediately after Dior’s death although he was only 21. There have been countless designers and many changes since then but the the company still exists as part of LVMH. I was surprised to learn that the full name of the company is LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE. I also hadn’t realized that many of the luxury brands that we recognize the names of are actually controlled/owned by 3 companies: LVMH, Kering, and Richemont. If you have a few minutes, take a cruise through wikipedia.

below: There was a small display of jewelry, including this necklace by Maison Gripoix. It is a string of lily of the valley flowers made from green and white handmade glass paste. Glass paste, or pâte de verre, is made by mixing finely ground glass, binding agents, and colour. The resulting ‘paste; is molded and then kiln fired. Apparently the lily of the valley was Christian Dior’s “lucky flower”.

The exhibit is presented by Holt Renfrew and you can find it on the 4th floor of the ROM…. until 18 March 2018. In the meantime, you can find more information on the ROM website.

Spadina doors, stores with doors wide open to take advantage of the summer days. Spadina was once the center of the garment industry in Toronto. Then it evolved into Chinatown, especially the area south of College and north of Queen. It still retains some of its Chinese character although there are many other Asian and South Asian influences. There have also been some changes as the Asian merchants and residents move to the suburbs.

Someone has redone the signs in Bathurst subway station….
now they look like they belong at Honest Eds store!

… and when I came up to street level I discovered that the station has been decorated with Honest Eds type ‘adverts’ complete with awful puns

…. including word play based on subway station names such as “Turnstiles, now museum, soon you won’t”. Groan. Smile.

below: The main entrance to the station now looks like an Honest Eds window.

below: They aren’t too easy to read in this picture, but the two signs on the left are, first, “Bacon & Eglinton $3.25” and second, “There aren’t any snakes on our tracks, St. Patrick banished them”. Were you expecting better? [laughing]

Nearby is the real Honest Ed’s store, a landmark for many years. Eighteen months ago, I posted some pictures of the store and at the end of that post I mentioned that the store was scheduled to close at the end of 2016. Well, the end of 2016 is drawing nigh and Honest Ed’s is slowly winding down. The decorating of Bathurst Station is part of the good-bye process.

At the moment, the interior of the store is a shadow of its former self. It is still in business but the goods are getting scarce. There are definitely still bargains to be had. I have a new hat that I bought there today, red polar fleece, that set me back 50 cents… plus tax.

below: Ed Mirvish and a crowd of shoppers back in the day.
The picture still hangs in one of the many corners of the store.

below: Photo taken from the walkway between the two buildings that make up Honest Ed’s store. Looking south.

below: From the same vantage point, but looking north. From here I spotted a new mural.

below: The mural is a large scale photo montage of people passing by the Bloor Street windows of Honest Ed’s. It catches the reflections of both the window contents and the life on the street. It is “The Theatre” and it is the creation of Matthew Monteith.

You’ve probably never heard the word asafo before. You probably have no idea what it means.

Until last week I didn’t know the word existed either.

I went to the Royal Ontario Museum to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibit. There were 100 excellent pictures of insects, animals, marine life, the sort of thing you’d expect. There was no photography allowed in that exhibit so I have no photos of the images on display. You’ll have to take my word for it that I was there.

I can appreciate the skill and patience that it takes to capture rabbits in the snow or a school of fish in a certain light underwater but those kind of pictures don’t excite me. That’s not to diminish the work of the photographers, it was all very high caliber both technically and visually. What I think I’m trying to say is that I left the exhibit wanting more, something more from my visit to the ROM.

Luckily I didn’t have to look far. In the next room was Art, Honour, and Ridicule: Asafo Flags from Southern Ghana.

Colour, lots of colour. And a subject that I knew nothing about, asafo flags. I wasn’t even sure what part of Africa Ghana is in (It’s on the south coast of Western Africa between Togo and the Ivory Coast as it turns out.).

The flags are hand made with an assortment of different motifs. The British Jack in the upper left corner is a very common feature. That’s a clue. Yes, Ghana was a British colony. Reading the history of Ghana is like reading the colonial history of large parts of Africa. The Portuguese built a fortress at Elmina in 1482. Interest in the region was piqued by the presence of gold, hence the name Gold Coast. By the early 17th century the first African state, Akwamu, controlled an extensive part of the coast. They were displaced by the Ashanti who were very involved in the slave trade, especially in trading slaves for weapons. When European countries outlawed trading in slaves in the early 1800’s, Ashanti power suffers. Some tussles ensue, a few battles, some back and forth, and by 1902 what was Ashanti becomes is a British colony. It remained a colony until 1957.

I’m not going to pretend to know or understand African history. I’m only trying to give some context to the flags. First, jump back to my mention of Elmina and the Portuguese. When the Portuguese arrived in this area in the 15th century, it was the Fante (or Fanti) people that they encountered. Both the Fante and the Ashanti belong to the Akan people. The Fante prevented them from venturing inland and leased properties for Portuguese trading missions. But when the Portuguese objected to Fante rules and regulations the Fante expelled them. Soon after, the Dutch arrived. The Fante served as middlemen in the commerce between the interior and Dutch traders on the coast.

Around 1724 the Dutch either established or made important a number of militia groups of local Fante. These are the Asafo companies. Historically, Asafo companies were in charge of the safety and protection of the local community. At the height of the slave trade they protected individuals and communities. They exerted power, exercise political influence and maintain codes of conduct within Fante communities. Each company has a flag and that flag has many roles. They represent proverbs and depict narratives of pride and wisdom. They accompany oral history and provide a means to preserve customs and traditions.

below:

top flag, by Kweku Kakanu, Saltpond Workshop. “Only a brave man goes under a large tree” because only large animals go under large trees. Made sometime between 1950 and 1957.

bottom flag, artist unknown, Kromantse Workshop. “Only tie a bull to a large tree”. Both the animal and the tree are acknowledged to be strong and mighty. Made around 1980. It has a Ghanese flag in the top left corner.

below:

top flag, by Kweku Kakanu, Saltpond Workshop. A crocodile dominates and controls a pond of fish. Made around 1940. The prey can not escape.

bottom flag, by Kwesi Budu, Saltpond Workshop. The fish cann’t escape the net of the fishermen just like enemies will not be able to escape when confronted by the company. Made around 1950.

Patricia Harris Gallery of Textiles and Costumes,
ROM, 4th floor,
until March 2017.

First, a big thank you for being welcomed into Gadabout to explore and take pictures. Gadabout is a store on Queen St East and it is home to “vintage clothing, nostalgia, ephemera, textiles and curios.” It is packed full of old things. Interesting things.

below: And when I say packed, I mean it! Floor to ceiling.

below: Who could resist a watering can purse? In pink even.

below: Containers and packaging for Mennen baby powder, 40 cents for J.R. for Athlete’s Foot, Silvo silver polish, a tire repair kit, 6-12 insect repellent, and wintergreen oil. The latter is used topically to relieve muscle aches and pains. It’s labelled as a poison as it is easy to overdose on it if ingested.

The title of the exhibit is ‘Surrender’ and the words on the wall say this:

“Liz Magor’s art invites us to reconsider our relationships with the things we encounter every day. Through subtle shifts in materiality and context, her works reveal the important role that objects play in our lives: they can allow us to conceal ourselves or to express our identities. In her sculptures and photographs, Magor explores how we depend on domestic materials to develop a sense of self.”

Nothing is mentioned about surrendering, or why the exhibit has the title that it does.

In the first room there are boxes on the wall. Each box looks like a carefully wrapped sweater or jacket that has just been purchased. I can envision a middle aged saleslady taking her time to package your purchase, like in an Eatons store thirty or forty years ago.

On closer look, most boxes also have a hand print, or shape of a hand with index finger pointing at something and little details are amiss… a ketchup package for example.

The second room has a number of smaller installations.

A garment bag left over a chair.
Neatly folded blankets hanging on a wall.
A platter of chocolates and left overs.
A tweed jacket on top of a liquor bottle.

A husky under a blanket (of snow? on a bed?)
A coat and purse hanging on a hook.
The contents of a room boxed and ready to move.

On closer look, some of the details on the blankets are wrong
including the labels that are sewn on back to front.

I was interested in what people’s reactions were to this exhibit so I had a chat with a couple of the employees about it. According to them, there was no reaction. Most people showed interest in the boxes but when they walked into the second room they rarely stopped to take a closer look.

As for surrender, I did find reference to it in the description of the exhibit on the AGO website, ” In this exhibition, everyday objects and forms, as well as the natural world, function allegorically by evoking the human need to surrender to desires, compulsions, fantasies.” Once again, I will leave it to you to decide if this description fits.

On the last Sunday of the month from May through October, the streets of the Kensingon Market area are closed to vehicular traffic from noon to 7 p.m. This year, the first two Pedestrian Sundays were cold and wet. For July and August the last Sundays of both months were hot and sunny. The following photos were taken on those two days. Entertainment… music… art… people watching…. restaurants… shops – the colours of Kensington.